Statz stated in 2020: "I wanted [The White Vault] to be a horror story for people who are always agitated when they watch a movie and are like, 'That's stupid, why did you do that?' [Our characters] aren't making bad choices. It's that every choice has no good option." She also claimed to have been inspired for the first season by her time at the University of Oxford, where "Everyone had their own stories about how they got to that exact same place."^[4][5]

Vengroff contacted Polar Bears International in order to obtain actual polar bear audio clips for the podcasts, rather than use grizzly bear audio clips as substitute as is often done in the entertainment industry. He seemingly sought authentic Andean condor audio clips for another episode.^[4]

For the Imperial spin-off, Statz and Vengroff worked with Stephen Wadley, an associate professor of Chinese and international studies at Portland State, to accurately depict Chinese and Manchu languages.^[4]

The series is presented in a found footage format by a character known only as The Documentarian (Hem Cleveland), a British woman who gathered audio, video, and written material of the depicted events. The Documentarian has compiled the footage in order to recreate the roughly chronological order of the events; she describes visual elements, while written material is depicted as being spoken by the character who wrote it; when a character speaks or writes in a non-English language, the voice actor performs an English version played louder over the original language.^[6]

Seasons 1–2 edit

The first two seasons of The White Vault take place in Outpost Fristed, a remote Arctic research station in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, from which a signal starts emitting, something only meant in case of emergencies; the crew, who was in charge of surveying weather and seismic activities for the safety of the locals, has made no contact since. Several weeks later, a rescue team of five is sent by Sidja Grúp, the Scandinavian company owning the station, consisting of: Mexican physician Dr. Rosa De La Torre (Lani Minella), sent in case of medical help needed by the station crew or the team, English technology specialist Walter Heath (David Ault), tasked with inspecting and possibly repairing the station's transmitter, Icelandic Sidja Grúp representative Jónas Þórirsson (Eyþór Viðarsson), here to document the events for the company, German geologist Dr. Karina Schumacher-Weiß (Kessi Riliniki), hired to examine the outpost's data, and Russian-Canadian survival expert Graham Casner (Peter Joseph Lewis), tasked with the group's safety against the Arctic cold and other potential dangers.^[7][8] The team arrives safely, finding the station deserted but in good shape overall, being fairly easy to fix for Heath; a heavy blizzard follows and fails to subside, making it impossible to leave for the foreseeable future.

Exploring more of the station, the crew finds a hatch leading to a cave system containing an ancient village trapped underneath a glacier, where Schumacher-Weiß, after encountering a "tall, black and skinny" creature, jumps from a ledge to save herself; although she only suffers limited physical damage, she grows increasingly mentally unstable. More strange events follow: the generator is sabotaged, five-fingered scratches appear on the exterior of the bunker, statues within the village representing human-like or animal-like creatures begin to inexplicably disappear and reappear when out of sight, and the anatomical theatre the team found in the village turns out to be made of stone boxes each containing a human heart and a full set of teeth. A paranoid Schumacher-Weiß is eventually abducted in the middle of the night, and the team finds a new box with a still beating heart, which they believe to be hers; they also hear her outside the bunker asking them to open the door, but conclude that the being who took her is using her voice.^[9][10] With their food supplies sabotaged by the creature, the team tries to escape through the blizzard; their attempted escape ends in disaster as Heath is also taken by the creature, while the three remaining team members find themselves inexplicably back to Outpost Fristed. Out of options, they explore the cave system in an attempt to find a way out; however, the creatures, which the team realizes are more than a single entity, chase them, and both Casner and De La Torre are taken. Þórirsson, the sole survivor, leaves a final written note in which he reveals that his body had been changing, and that he believes he was spared by the creatures because he is turning into one of them.

Season 3 edit

The third season is set shortly after the first two, on the Cerro Torre mountain in the Patagonian Andes, where an archaeological site of unknown origins featuring petroglyphs was recently discovered. As the site on Cerro Torre, named Base Camp Piedra, belongs to both Argentina and Chile, an international archaeological team of six is sent to study, consisting of: Argentinian archaeology professor Dr. Carito Ureta (Alli Smalley) of the National University of La Plata, her Colombian-American student and doctoral candidate Eva Olivia Moreno (Diane Casanova), Chilean archaeology professor Dr. Josefa Guerrero (Carla García) of Chile's University of Chile and United States' University of Pittsburgh, her American assistant and graduate student Simon Hall (Eric Nelsen), Chinese epigrapher Dr. Zhou Liu^{[Note 3]} (Sophie Yang), included due to having previously investigated similar glyphs in the Greater Khingan, and the Brazilian field guide who led the tourist group that coincidentally discovered the site, Lucas Criado (Danilo Battistini), now acting as helicopter pilot for the team's ascension and eventual descent of Cerro Torre.^[11]

The archaeological team starts their work studying the petroglyphs on the mountain's cliff face, until Moreno discovers a cave containing statues, an anatomical theatre with a floor made of stone boxes, and evidence of early human occupation. While the group's excitement grows, this also marks the start of unexplicable events, such as the statues being moved while no one is present, doppelgänger sightings, and both Ureta and Criado losing their grips on sanity; the latter acts increasingly suspicious, refusing to take the team down the mountain, leading the others to conclude that he knew what they would find at the site. Dense fog, and later heavy snowfalls plague the mountain, and both Ureta and the team's satellite phone go missing. An insane Lucas severely injures Hall's ankle, Liu concludes that everything at the site is inexplicably similar to that of the Greater Khingan's, and Hall is attacked by a monster using Ureta's voice, barely surviving the encounter. After a rockfall traps Guerrero, Hall and Liu within the cave, Moreno, left with no other option, descends the mountain by herself, miraculously achieving the descent despite noticing the presence of the monsters around her.

The season finale switches perspective to focus on Casner, who is revealed to have miraculously survived the events of Outpost Fristed. The Documentarian, who has placed both he and Moreno under her care, wishes to send a team led by Casner to Base Camp Piedra, in the hopes of rescuing the archaeological team and acquire more information on the site and the similarities between the events they encountered and those of Outpost Fristed and the Greater Khingan. A reluctant Casner accepts the offer after discovering that a dead body found by the archaeological team was, somehow, De La Torre's. The rescue team assembles, consisting of Casner, his old Serbian friend and fellow survival expert Dragana Vuković (Tanja Milojevic),^{[Note 4]} The Documentarian's trusted Lebanese associate Maheer Issa (Haytham Alwan), and a returning Moreno, injured but determined to help; upon arriving in Pantagonia, they are joined by Hall's American boyfriend Raimy Armstead (L. Jeffrey Moore), looking for Hall after losing contact with him, and start climbing up Cerro Torre.^[12]

Season 4 edit

The rescue team arrives at Base Camp Piedra, where they receive a radio call for help from a seemingly alive Liu. A controlled explosion by Vuković creates an opening into the cave, and they find Hall, alive but with his ankle injury significantly worsened, who explains that both Guerrero and Liu ended up stuck together with one of the creatures in a deeper part of the cave. The cave is also a dead end, with a stone door that can only be opened from the outside, leaving Hall safe but stuck in the shallower part of the cave, too weakened to free the others. Casner, Vuković and Issa open the door and go through, finding both Liu and Guerrero; however, when the latter informs them that Liu was taken by the creature stuck with them, the "Liu" met by the rescue team, revealed to be a monster having taken her form, abducts and kills Issa.

Casner, Guerrero, Hall, Moreno, Vuković and Armstead conclude that they are the only survivors among both the archaeological team and the rescue team, and make plans to climb down the mountain, a hazardous solution due to both the unusual weather making the ascension easy but the descend arduous, as if on purpose, and Hall's worsening injury. Casner finds De La Torre's body, which crumbles to dust when he makes physical contact, leaving nothing but teeth, which Casner collects, and a dust-like substance. Moreno, who realizes that she is turning into one of the creatures (likely the reason why she was not attacked during her earlier descent of the mountain), detonates explosives while the others undergo their escape, killing herself, destroying the site and buying them time. The five survivors make it to the bottom of Cerro Torre and reach a hospital, where Hall's leg his amputated due to his injury in order to save his life.

A key subplot in the series is The Documentarian's own journey, as she discovers that her estranged mother, referred to as "Mor" (Karin Heimdahl; Swedish for "mother"), the owner of a powerful company, is tied to the events featured in the series. The storyline becomes more prominent in the fourth season, in which she travels to Sweden to meet with Mor, whom, after the death of her other daughter, Essie (The Documentarian's half-sister), makes contact and explains many of the secrets behind the events of the series, as she wants her daughter to work with her. Mor reveals that the creatures are known as the Guardians, or Forrmynður. She explains that that their family has known of the Guardians for countless years, and is directly responsible for, and influenced by, elusive rituals: she explains that the rituals, made to satisfy the Guardians, result in global catastrophes if not followed, and that, while family members who follow the rituals are gifted with impossible luck and health, those who do not suffer from bad luck and accidents, such as the car crash in which Mor's other daughter died. The rituals are closely linked to the deadly events previously investigated by The Documentarian: Mor notably reveals that Sidja Grúp is a "sister company" to her own owned by Jónas Þórirsson's widow Hulda (whom Mor admits knowingly sent her husband to his doom), and that the shadow group Mor is a part of is behind the events of Outpost Fristed, Cerro Torre, and Greater Khingan, as well as many others. She implies that recent natural disasters all over the world are linked to a "Vault" at Outpost Fristed, and that the disasters will worsen unless the Vault is "satisfied" with the return of "the one it lost", implied to be Casner.

While undergoing her investigation in Sweden, The Documentarian learns of the recent events at Base Camp Piedra and makes contact with Casner's team. Although she does not yet fully understand the situation, she concludes that Outpost Fristed is the key to stopping the disasters happening worldwide, and wants to send Casner there; Vuković also decides to come out of faithfullness for Casner, as does Guerrero out of archaeological interest; they part ways with Hall and Armstead, who return home.

Season 5 edit

The Documentarian continues her investigation into Mor's activities and the conspiracy related to the Guardians: she learns that the origins of the Guardians are unknown, but that they are humans or animals who turned into Guardians later on; they demand regular sacrifices, and if their demands or not met, natural disasters follow with many casualties. For reasons unknown, the members of Mor's family have never been attacked by the Guardians nor afflicted by the loss of sanity often caused by the Guardians or their artifacts, although this trait is only passed from women to their biological children. With the death of Mor's other daughter, she reunited with The Documentarian to make her the heir to the family's legacy.

Meanwhile, Casner and Guerrero, who are attempting to reach Outpost Fristed with Vuković, both confess to their sanity increasingly worsening, suffering frequent visual and auditive hallucinations. The worsening natural disasters make travel near-impossible, but they are eventually able to reach Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard after being joined by Dr. Amelia Murray^{[Note 5]} (Beth Eyre), an English oceanographer working in Svalbard for Sidja Grúp, and who seems inexplicably immune to the loss of sanity caused by the Guardians' natural forms and artifacts. In Ny-Ålesund, the team discovers the town slaughtered by monsters and filled with insane, murderous individuals, and takes refuge with the last group of sane survivors, including a Chinese scientist named Dr. Carter Duàn (Ewan Chung) and a Danish nurse named Nadine Teuling (Charlotte Norup), with the former injuring Murray before realizing that Casner's group is not hostile.

A devastated Documentarian makes contact with Casner; having learned that the only way to stop the global catastrophes was to sacrifice Casner to the Guardians of Svalbard, she reluctantly lies to him and tricks him into heading into the Vault so he can be killed by the Guardians. Casner, Guerrero, and Vuković use snowmobiles to reach Outpost Fristed, while the injured Murray stays behind. Later, Þórirsson, now a full Guardian, peacefully invites Murray to leave the shelter behind and come with him. He claims that he intends to neither harm Murray nor turn her into a Guardian, and destroys an artifact in Murray's possession that had actually been sent by Sidja Grúp in an attempt to kill her,^{[Note 6]} and reveals that the Guardians take part in the sacrifices in an effort to appease an even greater force. Murray accepts the Guardian's invitation to leave everything behind and follow him to an unknown location for more answers.

The trio led by Casner reaches Outpost Fristed, but Guerrero, who has lost more of her sanity by this point, calls upon the creatures and is taken by them. Casner and Vuković rush to the cave system to save her, but are too late; a Guardian, taking on the form of Dr. Rosa De La Torre, says Casner needs to come with them. A furious Vuković fires at it, but the Guardian throws her away and drags Casner into the Vault to sacrifice him, ending the ritual started at the beginning of season 1 and closing the caverns. The worldwide catastrophes come to an end, and Vuković and the Ny-Ålesund survivors, including Duàn and Teuling, are safely rescued.

An unspecified amount of time later, The Documentarian moves to Sweden to be with her mother, and meets with a furious Vuković. The Documentarian apologizes the best she can, and gives her a video Casner left for Vuković; in it, Casner, convinced he will not survive his return to Outpost Fristed, thanks Vuković and asks her to look after his young daughter and, in a few years, deliver a message he recorded for her. Vuković eventually agrees to work for The Documentarian after learning that, while agreeing to work with her mother and having sacrificed Casner due to the urgency of the situation, she plans to find a way to end the cycle of rituals and sacrifices. Mor shares a meal with Hulda; while Hulda is shocked to see the remains of Murray's artifact, having believed the artifacts to be unbreakable, she dismisses further talks about Murray, convinced that she is dead, although Mor is more skeptical, pointing out that remains were never found.

Having recovered all of the available footage related to the events at Outpost Fristed, Base Camp Piedra, and her own investigations into her family, The Documentarian starts recording a presentation, in case she later fails to break the cycle and the burden falls onto her next of kin; this leads to the opening words of the series' first episode, revealing that The Documentarian's presentation was addressed to her future child. The final episode's post-credits scene features Hall and Armstead, about to get married, as they receive a package with carving akin to that of the sites'. They return it to sender to avoid any danger, and Armstead accepts a job at Mor and The Documentarian's company.

Season 6 edit

The season takes place in North Maine Woods, United States, in the middle of a snow storm. Two wild life documentalists, Jean Pelletier-Clarke (A.R. Olivieri) and Iffy Talno (Lauren Tucker), come to the rescue of two Canadian women, cousins Adele (Marcy Edwards) and Mika Fathers Tsįą (Denise Halfyard), fleeing from a group who abducted them. Meanwhile, a woman named Dís Eldrúnsdóttir (Hildur Magnusdottir) worries for the safety of her daughter-including against the rest of her powerful family.

Main cast edit

The series does not categorize its performers; actors are listed below as main cast if they appear in more than half of a season's episodes.

Recurring cast members edit

• Esa Andersson as the Finnish soldier (season 2), an unnamed man who seemingly stayed at Outpost Fristed prior to the events of the series.
• Alma Ottedag as Ebba, Mor's assistant (season 4–5)
• Daniel Muñoz as various characters (season 4–5)
• Travis Vengroff as various characters (season 4–6)
• Stephanie Izsak as Kelly (season 5)
• Lauren Choo as Lisa Mǎ (season 5), a Chinese tour organizer and one of the survivors in Ny-Ålesund.
• Lauren Clare as Lorri Warner (season 5), a British satellite technician and one of the survivors in Ny-Ålesund.
• Sam Suksiri as Paul Green (season 5), an American man working at the weather station in Ny-Ålesund and one of the survivors.
• Roland Olsen as Nils-Henrik (season 5)
• Albin Weidenbladh as Vidar Henriksson (season 5, recurring; season 6, guest), the site caretaker of the Swedish site, and a distant relative of the Icelandic family.
• Sara Fridgeirsdóttir as Hulda Rúnasdóttir (season 5–6), the head of the Icelandic family and Sidja Group.
• A.R. Olivieri as Jean Pelletier-Clarke (season 6), a wildlife photographer who is friends with Iffy.
• Dayn Leonardson as Sam ‘Es’ Gallo (season 6), one of the men who kidnapped Adele and Mika.
• Melkorka Oskarsdottir as Þóra Rúnasdóttir (season 6), a member of the Icelandic family.
• Hrafnhildur Orradóttir as Arna Dísdottír (season 6), Dís' daughter and a member of the Icelandic family.

The White Vault: Artifact edit

• Tanja Milojevic as Marion Sutton
• Heather Mclellan as Luca
• Matthew McLean as Davis
• Rob Harrison as Alex

The White Vault: Imperial edit

• Andrea Galata as Brother Benedetto
• Jd'almeida Pinheiro as Father Martim
• Ewan Chung as Jingwei Cheng

The White Vault: Iluka edit

• Dagur Jóhannesson as Mr. Árni Einarson
• Daniel Muñoz as Dr. Oscar Flores
• Dallas Wheatley as Charlie Lord
• Angus Brennan as Franco Reed
• Sam Yeow as Alex Lái
• Daniel Bunton as Captain Stephen Reimann

The White Vault: Avrum edit

• Yelena Shmulenson as Avrum ben Judah
• Lika Khukhashvili as Rivka

Spin-offs edit

The White Vault: Artifact edit

Marion Sutton, doctoral student at the University of Oxford, is assigned to begin research on a mysterious artifact gifted to the university by an anonymous donor. As her time with the object progresses, she begins to experience strange events and hear whispers. As her and her associates attempt to date, photograph, and research the object, the artifact seems to change expression, growing more angry as the study continues. Nightmares begin to cripple Marion. Luca, an artist tasked with drawing the artifact, is found dead by her own hand after an extended period with the artifact. Marion is believed to have walked into the ocean, driven mad by the object and how it calls to her.^[13]

The White Vault: Imperial edit

In the early 1700s, a Jesuit cartographic team reaches the lands of China, and sets about plans to complete a map of Qing dynasty China.^[14] The story is told through the recovered pages of journals and writings, with each passage read in the original languages (Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Manchu) before shifting to English.

The White Vault: Iluka edit

Dr Amelia Murray sits down with a representative of Sidja Grúp to review recordings and documents of the events that took place on board the shifting oceanic research vessel Iluka.

The Iluka, working in the Southern Ocean to collect deep-sea sediment cores and water samples using a vibrocorer, unexpectedly pulls up a large stone statue from the sea floor, tangled up in the equipment. The team work to remove the statue from the vibrocorer's legs, noting that it resembles a crab, or some kind of crustacean, and inform the captain they will have to remain stationary until the statue is untangled.

As they attempt to repair the vibrocorer, strange events begin to take place on board the Iluka: a dead whale floats to the surface of the sea, and nothing comes to scavenge from it; the statue moves around the ship's deck, disappearing and reappearing, while the deck cameras malfunction; the statue is unaffected by use of a scratch kit, and is deemed unidentifiable in material composition.

Two of the crew, Dr Oscar Flores and Franco Reid, are cut by the statue after touching it, with Franco falling seriously ill in a short space of time. In personal recordings, Franco complains that he is unable to eat anything, feels like his skin is crawling, and cannot get warm. The next day, Franco, working in the laboratory, is found running boiling water over his skin and scratching it, resulting in his skin debriding and revealing dark, shiny flesh underneath. The team attempt to subdue him, and trick him into being locked in the kitchen's walk-in freezer; despite his temperature registering at 41 °C (106 °F) and above, he continues to complain that he is cold. A curtailed medical report details that in the walk to the freezer, a number of Franco's teeth fell out; Dr Murray details that "everything that was Franco was falling away", and that the medical officer had no explanation for Franco's condition. In a recording of Franco taken from outside the freezer, the audible breaking of his bones can be heard as he moans in pain.

As Franco's condition continues to deteriorate, Dr Murray returns to the deck to discover that released deep-sea gasses are causing the sea to bubble, and that a number of petrels are falling out of the sky, dead. The crew talk to the captain, who decides to head back to port due to Franco's death.

Upon returning to the kitchen, the crew discover that Franco has escaped. Dr Flores, whose own injury from the statue is developing in the same way as Franco's condition did, tells Dr Murray that he has decided to go out on his own terms, and jumps overboard to avoid the same fate. The crew discover the captain is dead, and that the creature who used to be Franco was the likely culprit; the corpse of the ship's medical officer is also found.

Planning their escape, the crew pile into lifeboats, with the crane technician Alex staying behind to ensure everyone gets off the ship. Dr Murray hears Alex being killed by the creature, and is unable to convince the crew to turn around and go back for her. Follow-up documents note that the crew was rescued by a number of ships that were in the area at the time. The Iluka was recaptured, refueled and towed back to port, with blood on the ship identified as that of the known dead.

The representative of Sidja Grúp informs Dr Murray that he has no questions about her actions on board the Iluka, and formally invites her to take the position of head geological oceanographer at Sidja Grúp. Dr Murray questions why none of the reviewed recordings and documents raised any concerns about her actions, and ascertains that none of the events that took place – the deaths, the statues, what happened to Franco – are new to Sidja's representative. Dr Murray turns down the position and moves to leave; however, Sidja Grúp's representative offers to provide her with information, means and staff familiar with events similar to those of the Iluka, leading Dr Murray to take the job, at Sidja Grúp's more Northern offices.

The White Vault: Avrum edit

Amid the terror of the 1648 Cossack Uprising, and following the destruction of his home, Avrum is rescued by a group of travelers, befriending a young girl, Rivka.

Bonus episodes edit

• The White Vault: Summit – A young couple living in Rio de Janeiro get a call from work, informing them that they have won an all expenses paid hiking trip to Patagonia. However, their trip soon unravels, as the pair have no idea what awaits them in the heights of the mountains.^[15]
• The White Vault: Acquisition – Stashed away in the streets of Paris, an illegal artifact auction house auctions off unique pieces to the highest bidder; in particular, a journal is up for grabs.

Special release edit

• The White Vault: A Musical – A 2019 Patreon-excusive release, and a musical parody of the first two seasons of the show.

The show has been praised for its diverse cast, immersive soundscape,^[16][17] and use of different languages.^[18][19] The podcast has been featured on the front pages of iTunes, Pandora Radio, Spotify, and Himalaya, on the top 10 charts for The Arts and Performing Arts on iTunes, on the top 50 chart for 'All of iTunes' in the US, and on numerous blogs for 'Best Podcasts/Audio Dramas of 2017'.^[20]

The budget for the show comes entirely from its fans via crowdfunding through Patreon,^[37] and its creators regularly host educational panels across the US on creating radio drama podcasts,^[38] including: MAGFest 2020, NY Comciccon 2019, The Austin Film Festival 2019, PodX 2019 (Nashville), Podcon 2019 (Seattle), Podfest 2018–2020 (Orlando), Emerald City Comic Con (2020) Tampa Bay Comic Con (2016–2018), Rose City Comic Con (2017–2019), WW: Philadelphia (2017), and WW: St Louis (2017).^[39] They also release exclusive content and episodes through their Patreon such as the spinoff stories Artifact, Imperial, Iluka, Avrum, and The White Vault: A Musical.

In December 2017, The White Vault announced that they would perform a live version of their show in New York City as a part of The NoSleep Podcast's 2018 Sleepless Tour.^[40] They performed a prequel episode, 'Ashore', at the Highline Ballroom, flying cast members in from Iceland, Germany, and the UK for the event, which was sold out a month before the event. A second live show also took place on October 19 in Cambridge, MA, which also sold out.^[41]

• Official website